India Today State of States Conclave: Session on Insurgency and Development

The first session of the India Today's State of State Conclave on 'Insurgency and development' was chaired by the Editorial Director of India Today MJ Akbar.

He introduced the chief minister of Jammu Kashmir Omar Abdullah as the "flag bearer of his generation". Omar said that insurgency has effected every aspect of the governance, something as basic as stopping cheating during examination, and something as important as the 'ability of the state generate and attract investment." Omar made an important point about the growing nexus between the left wing extremists or the Maoist and the insurgents in Kashmir. "While we have no experience with the Maoist insurgency, of late, we find effort being made to build bridges between the Maoists and Naxalites of rest of India with the militants of Kashmir and also some Left-thinking academicians and students in Jammu region as well," he elaborated.

The endowment minister of Andhra Pradesh, G Venkata Reddy talking on the issue of development in a state marred by organised large-scale violence, was of the view that the best way is to work in the areas of poverty alleviation, shelter and food availability. "There is a need for special emphasis on the poorest of power." The state government has distributed 12 lakh hectare land to the Dalits and in addition 6.7 lak hectares to other backward categories in the last five years.

The Bihar Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi elaborated on four focal point approach to mitigate Naxal violence in the state. The reservation for Dalits and economically backward class people in the Panchayats, since most of the Naxal cadres are from these depressed sections of the society, has made a huge dent on Naxal's field cadres. Secondly: humanitarian approach towards the captured Naxalites, no more tortures and ill treatment. Thirdly, identifying Naxal areas and saturating government programmes and schemes in these areas to hasten development here. Last not the least: "do not challenge Naxals." The Bihar government's strategy was to keep doing what was required to be done to deal with Naxal problem without making provocative statement and instigating a reaction from them, as Modi acknowledges: "there is a limitation to the government machinery to deal with Naxals."

The second time chief minister of Chhattishgarh, Raman Singh was asked about his formula to win elections. He said all policies measures taken from heart to improve life of the people connect with the people. He listed impressive show by the state despite suffering from Naxal violence. The state has shown a GDP growth of above ten percent in last five years, agriculture showing an impressive growth of about 5 percent. He acknowledges that the state is not done so well as Andhra Pradesh in tackling Naxal violence, but informed the gathering that an additional 26,000 policemen have been inducted in the force, trained in Guerrilla warfare, is replacing the ageing police force of the state. He said: "All forces that are against the democracy, development and the constitution of the nation are my government's enemy and will be dealt accordingly."

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